pacs008-mcp: An MCP Server for ISO 20022 FI-to-FI Credit Transfers
A Model Context Protocol server that exposes the pacs008ISO 20022 FI-to-FI Customer Credit Transfer library as tools for AI agents andassistants — discover message types and scheme profiles, validate recordsagainst the JSON Schema and against a rail's usage guidelines, generatevalidated XML, validate raw XML against the bundled XSD, and parse inboundmessages, all from your favourite MCP client.
Latest release: v0.0.2 — 14 MCP tools over stdio, all backed by the
pacs008library, for Python 3.10+. Adds the November 2026 structured-addresscliff tools.
Contents
- Overview
- Install
- Quick Start
- Tools
- November 2026 structured-address cliff
- Using the tools
- Development
- Licence
- Contribution
- Acknowledgements
Overview
The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard that lets AI agentsand assistants discover and call external tools in a uniform way. pacs008-mcpis an MCP server that turns the pacs008 library into a set offirst-class agent tools, so an assistant can generate, validate, and parseISO 20022 pacs.008 FI-to-FI Customer Credit Transfer XML messages — andthe related pacs.002/.004 status and return messages — directly from aconversation.
Every tool is a thin, typed wrapper over the pacs008 library — the samepackage used by the CLI and REST API — so all interfaces behave identically.Tools return JSON-serialisable data; on a validation error they return an{"error": ...} payload rather than raising.
- Website: https://pacs008.com
- Source code: https://github.com/sebastienrousseau/pacs008-mcp
- Bug reports: https://github.com/sebastienrousseau/pacs008-mcp/issues
flowchart LR
A["MCP client<br/>(Claude Desktop, IDE, agent)"] -->|stdio| B["pacs008-mcp"]
B -->|delegates to| C["pacs008 library"]
C -->|render + validate| D["ISO 20022 pacs XML"]
Install
pacs008-mcp runs on macOS, Linux, and Windows and requires Python 3.10+and pip. It pulls in the core pacs008 library and the MCP SDKautomatically.
python -m pip install pacs008-mcp
Note: while the core
pacs008library is not yet on PyPI, install it fromsource first:python -m pip install "git+https://github.com/sebastienrousseau/pacs008.git" python -m pip install pacs008-mcp
Quick Start
Launch the server over stdio (the FastMCP default transport):
pacs008-mcp
Register it with any MCP client (e.g. Claude Desktop) by adding it to theclient's configuration:
{
"mcpServers": {
"pacs008": { "command": "pacs008-mcp" }
}
}
Tools
All tools wrap the pacs008 library, so they behave identically to the CLI andREST API.
| Tool | Purpose |
|---|---|
list_message_types |
List the 20 supported ISO 20022 pacs message types |
list_schemes |
List the registered scheme / usage-guideline profiles |
get_scheme |
Inspect a scheme profile's rules |
get_required_fields |
Required input fields for a message type |
get_input_schema |
Full input JSON Schema for a message type |
validate_records |
Validate flat records against a message type's schema |
validate_scheme |
Validate records against a scheme's usage guidelines |
generate_message |
Generate a validated pacs XML message |
validate_xml |
Validate a raw XML string against the bundled XSD |
parse_message |
Parse & classify an inbound ISO 20022 message |
classify_address |
Classify a postal address as structured / hybrid / unstructured |
validate_address |
Validate one postal address against an address policy |
repair_address |
Upgrade legacy unstructured address lines toward hybrid/structured form |
validate_addresses |
Batch-validate every party address across payment rows |
November 2026 structured-address cliff
On 14 November 2026, fully unstructured postal addresses are decommissionedacross SWIFT CBPR+, HVPS+, TARGET2 RTGS, CHAPS, Fedwire and Lynx — after thatdate, any cross-border or high-value payment carrying an unstructured-onlypostal address is rejected at the rail. The four address tools above wrapthe pacs008 library's standards.address module so an agent can get ahead ofthe deadline: classify_address shows where an address stands, validate_address/ validate_addresses enforce a policy (defaulting to the cliff rulehybrid_or_structured, which rejects unstructured addresses), andrepair_address runs country-aware heuristics (GB, US, DE, FR, JP,plus a best-effort fallback) to lift legacy address lines into hybrid form.The repair step is experimental — audit its output before submitting downstream.
Using the tools
You can invoke the tools in-process — without a transport — straight through theFastMCP instance. This mirrors what an agent receives over stdio. The runnableversion of this snippet lives in examples/mcp_tools.py.
import asyncio
from pacs008_mcp.server import server
record = [
{
"msg_id": "MSG001",
"creation_date_time": "2026-01-15T10:30:00",
"nb_of_txs": "1",
"settlement_method": "CLRG",
"interbank_settlement_date": "2026-01-15",
"end_to_end_id": "E2E001",
"interbank_settlement_amount": "1000.00",
"interbank_settlement_currency": "EUR",
"charge_bearer": "SHAR",
"debtor_name": "Debtor Corp",
"debtor_agent_bic": "DEUTDEFF",
"creditor_agent_bic": "COBADEFF",
"creditor_name": "Creditor Ltd",
}
]
async def main() -> None:
async def call(name, args):
result = await server.call_tool(name, args)
content = result[0] if isinstance(result, tuple) else result
return content[0].text if content else ""
print(await call("list_schemes", {}))
xml = await call("generate_message",
{"message_type": "pacs.008.001.08", "records": record})
print(xml[:46]) # -> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> ...
asyncio.run(main())
Run it directly:
python examples/mcp_tools.py
Development
pacs008-mcp uses Poetry andmise.
git clone https://github.com/sebastienrousseau/pacs008-mcp.git && cd pacs008-mcp
mise install
poetry install
poetry shell
This package depends on the core
pacs008library. Until it is on PyPI,install it from source first:pip install "git+https://github.com/sebastienrousseau/pacs008.git".
A Makefile orchestrates the quality gates (kept in lockstep with CI):
make check # all gates (REQUIRED before commit)
make test # pytest
make lint # ruff + black
make type-check # mypy --strict
Related MCP Servers
Part of the ISO 20022 MCP Suite — open-source, Apache-2.0 licensed MCP servers for banking and financial-services AI agents:
| Server | Purpose |
|---|---|
pain001-mcp |
Generate & validate ISO 20022 pain.001 payment files (v03–v12, pain.008, SEPA) with rulebook checks |
camt053-mcp |
Parse & reconcile ISO 20022 camt.053 bank-to-customer statements — CBPR+/HVPS+ ready |
acmt001-mcp |
Generate & validate ISO 20022 acmt account-management messages |
bankstatementparser-mcp |
Parse bank statements (BAI2, MT940/MT942, CAMT.053, OFX, CSV) into structured transactions |
MCP Registry
mcp-name: io.github.sebastienrousseau/pacs008-mcp
Licence
Licensed under the Apache Licence, Version 2.0. Any contribution submittedfor inclusion shall be licensed as above, without additional terms.
Contribution
Contributions are welcome — see the contributing instructions. Thanks toall contributors.
Acknowledgements
Built on the pacs008 ISO 20022 FI-to-FI Customer Credit Transferlibrary and the Model Context Protocol Python SDK.